[Photo:163.com] The number of daily smokers around the world has hit 1 billion in 2015, most from China, India, the U.S. and Russia, says a new report. Tobacco use accounts for 12 percent of total deaths in China and the country produces about 2.3 trillion cigarettes annually, which is 40 percent of the world’s total. Because tobacco remains a significant source of both health risks and revenue for municipal and national governing entities,[6] specific Chinese tobacco control policies in different contexts may betray an overall position of ambivalence or inconsistency. This was especially seen in major western cities in the US, Canada, and Europe over the past couple of decades. [24] The ban had a generally strong impact, with poll results suggesting that a majority of Chinese residents (69% out of over 10000 respondents) are "not only aware of a smoking ban in Beijing, but [95% of respondents] also hope that the authorities promote the move nationwide. This measure was intended to bring much-needed revenue to local enterprise; quotas were issued by county authorities to offices under its jurisdiction, which in turn were fined if they failed to consume the demanded quota of cigarettes, or if they were found purchasing other brands of tobacco products. As a response to FCTC recommendations for reduction of access and supply-side tobacco regulation, the Ministry of Health is now targeting farmers to give up tobacco plantation and trying to “convince them that the tobacco industry can be replaced by other industries that are more healthy, sustainable and profitable.”[17], Another potential obstacle is the Chinese tobacco industry's lack of complete compliance with nationally defined policies regarding the correct presentation of warning labels on cigarette packages, which must be readily visible and cover at least 30% of the visible area of the packaging. Doctors who smoked were less likely to believe that smoking has a harmful effect on health compared to nonsmokers. China is the world’s largest consumer and producer of tobacco.China has about 350 million smokers and produces 42% of the all cigarettes in the world. "[5], The "Decision" also encourages health administration offices to utilize mass media resources and draw upon large-scale publicity campaigns such as World No Tobacco Day in order to "actively promote the importance of implementing a total smoking ban in military and civil health administration offices and medical and health institutions. Tobacco use has been identified as an increasingly popular phenomenon in China, and Chinese physicians have been found to exhibit high smoking rates as well. China has 350 million smokers and 540 million people are suffering from secondhand smoke. Over half of adult males in Indonesia are smokers (57%, but mostly kretek , a local form of cigarette) and China (53% estimated), and nearly half in Bangladesh , though for women the figure is much lower. Backlinks from other websites and blogs are the lifeblood of our site and are our primary source of new traffic. In 2010, smoking caused nearly 1 million (840 000 male, 130 000 female) deaths in China. There was a significant gender difference, with 41% of male physicians reporting to be smokers but only 1% of female physicians. Smoking in China is prevalent, as the People's Republic of China is the world's largest consumer and producer of tobacco:[1] there are 350 million Chinese smokers,[1] and China produces 42% of the world's cigarettes. Jiang Y, Ong M K, Tong E K, et al. Furthermore, smoking can be considered a personal matter that should not be relevant to the workplace. Everywhere in the developed world, as the bans on cigarette smoking in public have been increasingly made into law, tobacco consumption has went into decline. There are more than 300 million smokers in China. Americans' reported smoking behaviors mirror the worldwide median. If you use our chart images on your site or blog, we ask that you provide attribution via a link back to this page. The percentage of people who smoke has fallen in most countries since 1990, but the total numbers of smokers and smoking deaths have risen, a study says. However, in the last 14 years smoking in China has actually fallen from 63 per cent in 1996, to 54 per cent in 2010. Some 23.3% or 12.2 million Italians now smoke, 0.4% up … [2], Yang Gonghuan, deputy director of the National Center of Disease Control of China, said that progress on tobacco control is not moving quickly because the government derives large tax revenues from tobacco sales, and the industry employs a large workforce. [18], On February 12, 2011, State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, announced that it will ban inappropriate smoking scenes in movies and TV shows. The latest amendment enlarges the smoking ban to include indoor workplaces, most public places including restaurants, Internet cafés, public lavatories, beaches and most public parks. Smoking in China is prevalent, as the People's Republic of China is the world's largest consumer and producer of tobacco: there are 350 million Chinese smokers, and China produces 42% of the world's cigarettes. Only some 30 percent of the adult males are smoking in India. Current tobacco control legislation in China does not explicitly address gendered or social bases for smoking. [30], As of 2014, two thirds of Chinese men smoked. By 2050, the researchers expect this number could rise to 8,000 a day - some three million people a year. 0.32% However, due to the Chinese government's complex relationship with tobacco policy (for instance, many localities rely upon tobacco tax revenue as a substantial source of income),[6] there have been many concerns about the practicality of the national policy's enforcement. Belarus, the country that consumes the most alcohol per capita, comes third, followed by Macedonia and Albania. Beijing’s smoking control efforts mark a big step forward for China in this regard. 8-32 Two meta-analyses have been published which pooled the prevalence of smokers in hospitalized patients across studies based in China. In comparison, the numbers for the male smokers were 17 percent and 37 percent respectively. China's sky high smoking rate among men may help explain why they're more susceptible to coronavirus infection and death. Only Russia and some eastern European countries come close to this high prevalence of smoking in China. Some bars, karaoke parlors, saunas and nightclubs were exempt until 1 July 2009. A decrease in cigarette smoking also happened in China, where the public smoking ban was stringently enforced with large fines attached. [20] Another survey done by public health experts from Fudan University which involved 800 hotel guests and around 4,000 patrons and employees of restaurants, shops and entertainment venues in Shanghai found that about 73 percent of the hotel guests said Shanghai should adopt a smoking ban in public areas, 84 percent of restaurant guests reported exposure to second-hand smoke, and 74 percent of them were annoyed by the fumes and support smoking controls. [12] Various health experts, activists, and public advocacy groups regard the Chinese government's escalating efforts toward tobacco policy as "surely good news for the country's smoking control progress. An economic motivation against physician smoking may be the societal loss that is caused by tobacco use. What the researchers discovered about risk of death from COVID-19 among smokers is that in the minimally adjusted model, which only accounted for age and sex, smokers and former smokers were at 25 percent and 80 percent, respectively, higher risk of dying from COVID-19 compared to nonsmokers. They have a slightly higher rate than Japanese physicians (20.2%) and Japanese physicians have a smaller gender discrepancy with 27% male and 7% of female doctors smoking. Prior to enacting the nationwide smoking ban, the Ministry of Health had already maintained active involvement in decrying the negative effects of smoking and striving toward decreased prevalence of tobacco use. [WHO; Wikipedia “Smoking in the People’s Republic of China”] One of every three cigarettes consumed around the world is smoked in China. About one in every three adults (or 1.1 billion adults) smokes worldwide, and 80% of smokers live in the developing world.1 China is the world's largest cigarette consumer and producer.2 In 2002, about 350 million adults reported having smoked at some point and 300 million reported being smokers at the time.3 According to previous surveys, smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption increased during the 1980s and 1990s.4 By 1996, 63% of men and 4% of women > 15 years of age had smoked at least on… 1986, Smoking in the People's Republic of China, WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project, State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, "The Political Mapping of China's Tobacco Industry and Anti-Smoking Campaign", "Smoke-free list extends to healthcare facilities", From 2011, Smoking Will Be Banned Completely in the Medical and Healthcare System, China To Ban Smoking In 7 Cities: Pilot Project, China Ratifies International Tobacco Treaty, Ahead of World Expo, China acts to promote smoking controls, Chinese Health Ministry Releases Landmark Anti-Smoking Report, "Special communication: China's first historic efforts to develop a tobacco control advocacy workforce via schools of public health", China relaxes smoking ban in Beijing restaurants, China moves to reduce smoking scenes on TV, Shanghai scrambles to implement ban on smoking in indoor public places ahead of World Expo, Smoking ban helps reduce fires in Beijing, Guangdong to launch stricter smoking ban at public places, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2009-12/11/content_9161633.htm, "Contrasting male and female trends in tobacco-attributed mortality in China: evidence from successive nationwide prospective cohort studies", "Smoking causes 10% of deaths worldwide; even more in China", "The Chinese Government Is Getting Rich Selling Cigarettes", Cigarette Retail Trade in China Undergoes Drastic Changes, The most effective Alternative To Smoking, China Today: Health and Medicine Information, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, National Healthcare Security Administration, China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Smoking_in_China&oldid=992128515, Wikipedia articles in need of updating from December 2015, All Wikipedia articles in need of updating, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2010, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2010, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, In addition to "strong social pressure placed upon Chinese men to smoke", it is also expected that female smoking will become "more socially acceptable as the tobacco industry increasingly targets female smokers. But for women, the results were strikingly different. Results In Chinese men aged ≥18, 62.4% were ever-smokers in 2010, including 54.0% current smokers and 8.4% ex-smokers. Regardless of the number of smokers per country, there is usually a sharp discrepancy in the male-female ratio. [4] The Ministry said that as a "mid-term goal, all health administrations and half of the country's healthcare facilities should be smoke-free by the end of 2010". The new ban will be run as a pilot project under the joint auspices of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease(UNION). China has over 300 million smokers (!). ", Despite the popular support for the Shanghai smoking ban, many also feel skeptical about the actual implementation of the law. By contrast, smoking rates among women in China have dropped sharply; about 10 percent … We should do the same, at least during the Expo, since it is a cosmopolitan event. XI'AN, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The smoking rate for Chinese residents aged 15 and above dropped to 26.6 percent last year from 27.7 percent in 2015, said a survey report released Friday by China's disease control authorities. "Sixty-six percent is already saturated. [5] With an ever-increasing Chinese smoking population of over 350 million, the enactment of the May 20 initiative represents an important landmark in China's commitment to tobacco control. Hangzhou's people's congress had approved to ban smoking in public and working places in the beginning of 2010; smoking may be prohibited in some places and violators may be fined up to 3000 yuan. A 2004 study conducted among 3,500 Chinese physicians found that 23% were regular smokers. Because cigarettes were introduced into China before 1900, Hermalin and Lowry found that for men, each five-year group they studied had reached a similar high peak of smoking prevalence, ranging from 65 percent to 75 percent. 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